Tories are out …
Category: politics
Child poverty UK
http://www.cpag.org.uk/child-poverty-facts-and-figures
Child poverty facts and figures
- There are 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK today. That’s 27 per cent of children, or more than one in four.1
- There are even more serious concentrations of child poverty at a local level: in 100 local wards, for example, between 50 and 70 per cent of children are growing up in poverty.2
- Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. Two-thirds (66 per cent) of children growing up in poverty live in a family where at least one member works.3
- People are poor for many reasons. But explanations which put poverty down to drug and alcohol dependency, family breakdown, poor parenting, or a culture of worklessness are not supported by the facts.4
- Child poverty blights childhoods. Growing up in poverty means being cold, going hungry, not being able to join in activities with friends. For example, 61 per cent of families in the bottom income quintile would like, but cannot afford, to take their children on holiday for one week a year.5
- Child poverty has long-lasting effects. By 16, children receiving free school meals achieve 1.7 grades lower at GCSE than their wealthier peers.6 Leaving school with fewer qualifications translates into lower earnings over the course of a working life.
- Poverty is also related to more complicated health histories over the course of a lifetime, again influencing earnings as well as the overall quality – and indeed length – of life. Professionals live, on average, eight years longer than unskilled workers.7
- Child poverty imposes costs on broader society – estimated to be at least £29 billion a year.8 Governments forgo prospective revenues as well as commit themselves to providing services in the future if they fail to address child poverty in the here and now.
- Child poverty reduced dramatically between 1998/9-2011/12 when 1.1 million children were lifted out of poverty (BHC).9 This reduction is credited in large part to measures that increased the levels of lone parents working, as well as real and often significant increases in the level of benefits paid to families with children.
- Under current government policies, child poverty is projected to rise from 2012/13 with an expected 600,000 more children living in poverty by 2015/16.10 This upward trend is expected to continue with 4.7 million children projected to be living in poverty by 2020.
- 1. Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 : 2011/12, Tables 4.1tr and 4.3tr. Department for Work and Pensions, 2013
- 2. Child Poverty Map of the UK, End Child Poverty, March 2011
- 3. Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 : 2011/12, Table 4.3db. Department for Work and Pensions, 2013
- 4. For example, G Hay and L Bauld, Population estimates of problematic drug users in England who access DWP benefits, Department for Work and Pensions, 2008, suggest that 6.6 per cent of the total number of benefit claimants in England were problem drug users. While drug misuse may prove to be a key reason this group of people finds it hard to escape poverty, it clearly has no explanatory power for the other 93.4 per cent of claimants.
- 5. Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 : 2011/12, Table 4.7 db. Department for Work and Pensions, 2012
- 6. GCSE and Equivalent Attainment by Pupil Characteristics in England 2009/10, Department for Education 2011
- 7. Life expectancy at birth and at the age of 65 by local areas in the UK, 2004-6 and 2008-10, Office of National Statistics, October 2011
- 8. D Hirsch, Estimating the costs of child poverty, 2013
- 9. Households Below Average Income, An analysis of the income distribution 1994/95 – 2011/2, Department for Work and Pensions, 2013
- 10. J Browne, A Hood and R Joyce, Child and working age poverty in Northern Ireland, Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2103
With this blind old cnut Blunkett .
.. he’s a bit crap isn’t he?
Been a blind cnut all his life … and played on it?
See … I don’t have to be politically correct because I’m not a politician.
Let’s get back to Blunkett …
A ridiculous, biggotted blind man.
A little later edit: It doesn’t matter that you’re blind if you’re a Fascist: You’re still a Fascist having a good disregard for “airy fairy” civil liberties. You’re still a Fascist being a cabinet minister for Tony Blair’s Fascist government.
It occurs to me that cabinet ministers at that time are jointly responsible under the law. I want that law enforced.
[26/9/13 11.40 An improvement in infrequency and quality perhaps. Blunkett is certainly a Blairite Fascist old cnut. He’s been talking shit in a fringe meeting. As if the Blairites didn’t use fake manufactured terrorism to cow (the cows or ‘cattle’) into submission. Blair was present for the scroll of Bush. Blair & co were there every step of the way.]
Gagging Bill attack on democracy
The Gagging Bill is having it’s second reading today. Despite claims by the government that it has addressed concerns, the bill is still an assault on democratic campaigns while failing to address commercial and corporate lobbying .
Strange times …
There’s nothing strange about me commending former UK diplomat and fellow dissident blogger Craig Murray. He currently has an article about the US Congress being fed lies in support of an attack on Syria.
Israel has repeatedly been involved in the Syrian civil war, carrying out a number of illegal bombings and missile strikes over many months. This absolutely illegal activity by Israel- which has killed a great many civilians, including children – has brought no condemnation at all from the West. Israel has now provided “intelligence” to the United States designed to allow the United States to join in with Israel’s bombing and missile campaign.
The answer to the Troodos Conundrum is simple. Troodos did not pick up the intercepts because they do not exist. Mossad fabricated them. John Kerry’s “evidence” is the shabbiest of tricks. More children may now be blown to pieces by massive American missile blasts. It is nothing to do with humanitarian intervention. It is, yet again, the USA acting at the behest of Israel.
They are certainly strange times when I find myself agreeing with posts by Conservative John Redwood and when the cheese-eating surrender monkeys support war. Even Obama is making some sense. What’s the World coming to?
I know about the French – quell surprise – and their disgusting fabulous cuisine and wines, stripy jumpers, Mobylettes and minimalist plumbing. Oh yes, I’ve ridden a motorcycle down the Champs-Élysées and through a lot of disgustingly very beautiful countryside actually. I can even speak a little French really badly and have had very faltering conversations. [They even charge you for sitting down.] Scum.
Anyway, back to the point. It’s much more than only Syria and there should be no involvement in Syria’s internal affairs. There is no way that use of chemical weapons can be attributed correctly with certainty to Assad’s government.